Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887Quotes
A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCPolitics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BC